Nothing (General)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Friday, November 27, 2009, 20:11 (5287 days ago) @ dhw

Here are some quotes from Stenger to clarify his views about "nothing". -First it is necessary to clarify what he means by "unphysical region". He begins with an account of quantum tunneling by which a physical particle can pass through a potential barrier he says: "inside the barrier the momentum of the particle is an imaginary number, that is, has a negative square root and so is "unphysical", meaning unmeasurable. There is a certain probability that the particle will penetrate the barrier.-He then applies this to the origin of the universe, citing the work of James Hartle and Stephen Hawking and later Alexander Vilenkin. According to Vilenkin's version he writes: "our universe simply tunnels its way out of chaos". For fuller details see his Philo article. A PDF version can be located on his website: http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/ about two thirds down the page under the heading "A Scenario for a Natural Origin of Our Universe".-This is from Quantum Gods page 250:-"If we seek out the origin of the word "chaos" we find that it comes from the Greek for "the primal emptiness" or "void". To be "something" requires some structure. Since the unphysical region lacks everything, including structure, it can be identified with "nothing". Now, if you are what in the cyberworld is called a "logic chopper" you will try to argue that having no structure is still a property and anything with a property can't be nothing. Don't bother e-mailing me with such irrelevant word-play. The unphysical region is as nothing as anything can be."

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GPJ